Reference is made to commonly assigned co-pending patent application filed herewith entitled xe2x80x9cMethod And Apparatus For Detecting Misuse Of A Postal Indiciaxe2x80x9d in the names of Robert A. Law, Jr. and Ronald P. Sansone; and filed herewith entitled xe2x80x9cA System For Capturing Information From A Postal Indicia Producing Device So As To Produce A Report Covering The Payment Of Value Added Taxes And Feesxe2x80x9d in the names of Ronald P. Sansone and Robert A. Law, Jr.
The invention relates generally to the field of postage devices and more particularly to a system for correcting the rating and payment of mail pieces.
Postage meters are commonly used to apply postal indicia to mail pieces to pay for postage. To apply a postal indicia to a mail piece using a postage meter, a mail piece to be mailed is inserted into the postage meter, which imprints a postal indicia on the mail piece indicating that a certain amount of postage has been paid. The postage meter deducts the amount of postage applied to the mail piece from an amount available, which is stored in the postage meter. Periodically, the amount available is increased, and the sender is billed for the increase. The process of increasing the amount available is referred to as xe2x80x9crefillingxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9crechargingxe2x80x9d the postage meter. Usually, an organization other than the post office is responsible for monitoring and refilling such postage meters, billing and collecting fees from senders, as well as remitting to the post office a sum of money corresponding to the postage applied by such postage meters.
Often improper postage is placed on a mail piece. If an error in the rating and/or payment of individual mail pieces was made, the post would return the mail piece to the mailer. The mailer would have spent the value of postage placed on the returned mail piece and the mailer would have to affix additional postage on the mail piece before mailing the returned mail piece. If an error in the rating and/or payment of numerous mail pieces was made, the post would telephone the mailer of the mail pieces and inform the mailer of the errors. The mailer would go to the post office to view the mail pieces having improper postage. If the mailer applied an improper amount of postage, the mailer would have to pay the additional postage due the post before the mail pieces would be delivered. The foregoing may consume a large amount of time.
An another disadvantage of the prior art is that when the mailer went to the post office, the mailer did not know the settings that was placed on the postage meter nor the weight the scale attributed to the mail piece. Since these items were in the mailers office.
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a system for correcting the rating and payment of mail pieces scanned and weighed by the post. The foregoing is accomplished by: uniquely identifying mail pieces during the metering process; maintaining a record of the postage that has been applied to the mail pieces and the characteristics of the mail pieces; scanning the mail pieces to determine if the correct postage has been paid; comparing the scanned and weighed mail pieces to the maintained record; and correcting any underpayments or overpayments.